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Today was mostly uneventful, thankfully, with just enough customers to make the day go swiftly without being an overload.
There was this gem, though.
I was in the process of ringing up a very nice woman when a teenage boy got in line with a video game and some cash. He appeared to be about 12-15 (I'm bad with ages), and looked like the woman's son (both were Hispanic), and I think he even interacted with her a bit. I finished ringing up the woman and she stood there, looking over her receipt and sorting her purse and other general after-transaction chores, as I turned to the boy. He hands me his game; I scan it.
The register beeps. "Is customer 17?" it prompts, with a birthdate for ID comparison and the keys for Yes/No. I look at the kid. Definitely not old enough. I gesture to the woman. "Is she your mother?" Kid nods. I turn to the woman and hold up the game, which I see now has an M rating ("Mature" in America, and like rated-R movies may not be purchased by children under 17 without parents immediately present). "Is he allowed to buy this?" I ask her. The boy looks like a deer caught in headlights.
The woman looks confused for a bit, so I gesture to the register screen and its prompt. "Is he allowed to buy this? You have to be over 17, since it's Mature rated."
The woman looks at the game. She looks at the register screen. She looks at the boy, who has this "oh crap" look on his face. She looks at me, and shakes her head. "No," she says, with this tone to her voice that says the boy is in some serious trouble.
"No problem," I respond, and put the game behind my receipt printer where the kid can't reach it, and clear the transaction. The woman gives the boy a glare and escorts him out of the store. I page for an associate from Electronics to come collect the game, since it looked new enough that it was probably in the game cage (the lock-up area where the big-ticket new-release games are kept). End of story?
Nope.
The Electronics associate comes up a few minutes later with a curious look on her face. I show her the game, and explain what happened. She gets a "no way!" look on her face, and explains.
Apparently, the boy had already gone to Electronics with the intent of purchasing the game, only without his mother at that point. She knew it was M-rated and didn't even ring it up, and instead asked him where his parents were because he wasn't old enough to buy the game. He demanded to know why she couldn't sell it to him, and she showed him exactly were it said (on the game case). She then turned to put something else away, and that's when the kid grabbed the game and left Electronics (as far as I can tell, to come up to the registers to buy it, where he encountered me).
Kid's dang lucky he decided he'd try to sneak it past another cashier (me) and his mom rather than actually shoplift it. There are worse things than a mother's annoyance at trying to buy a game you're not allowed to have. Considering there's actually a customer currently banned from our store for blatantly attempting to scam items through at the self-checkouts or something like that and throwing a huge fit in the faces of all the managers about the store trying to steal her money and how everything was paid for (when none of it was).
There was this gem, though.
I was in the process of ringing up a very nice woman when a teenage boy got in line with a video game and some cash. He appeared to be about 12-15 (I'm bad with ages), and looked like the woman's son (both were Hispanic), and I think he even interacted with her a bit. I finished ringing up the woman and she stood there, looking over her receipt and sorting her purse and other general after-transaction chores, as I turned to the boy. He hands me his game; I scan it.
The register beeps. "Is customer 17?" it prompts, with a birthdate for ID comparison and the keys for Yes/No. I look at the kid. Definitely not old enough. I gesture to the woman. "Is she your mother?" Kid nods. I turn to the woman and hold up the game, which I see now has an M rating ("Mature" in America, and like rated-R movies may not be purchased by children under 17 without parents immediately present). "Is he allowed to buy this?" I ask her. The boy looks like a deer caught in headlights.
The woman looks confused for a bit, so I gesture to the register screen and its prompt. "Is he allowed to buy this? You have to be over 17, since it's Mature rated."
The woman looks at the game. She looks at the register screen. She looks at the boy, who has this "oh crap" look on his face. She looks at me, and shakes her head. "No," she says, with this tone to her voice that says the boy is in some serious trouble.
"No problem," I respond, and put the game behind my receipt printer where the kid can't reach it, and clear the transaction. The woman gives the boy a glare and escorts him out of the store. I page for an associate from Electronics to come collect the game, since it looked new enough that it was probably in the game cage (the lock-up area where the big-ticket new-release games are kept). End of story?
Nope.
The Electronics associate comes up a few minutes later with a curious look on her face. I show her the game, and explain what happened. She gets a "no way!" look on her face, and explains.
Apparently, the boy had already gone to Electronics with the intent of purchasing the game, only without his mother at that point. She knew it was M-rated and didn't even ring it up, and instead asked him where his parents were because he wasn't old enough to buy the game. He demanded to know why she couldn't sell it to him, and she showed him exactly were it said (on the game case). She then turned to put something else away, and that's when the kid grabbed the game and left Electronics (as far as I can tell, to come up to the registers to buy it, where he encountered me).
Kid's dang lucky he decided he'd try to sneak it past another cashier (me) and his mom rather than actually shoplift it. There are worse things than a mother's annoyance at trying to buy a game you're not allowed to have. Considering there's actually a customer currently banned from our store for blatantly attempting to scam items through at the self-checkouts or something like that and throwing a huge fit in the faces of all the managers about the store trying to steal her money and how everything was paid for (when none of it was).
" look on his face all the way out.
I AM the evil bastard!
' and BUY IT FOR THEM. takes all of my energy to not go 'Alreight ma'am enjoy watching your child beat up a white guy steal his car run over a cop buy a prostitute, pay her, then shoot her in the back of the head. Then go to kindergarten.'
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